Saturday, March 31, 2018

Go Avs Go!

I was already going to spend part of my spring break in Denver so I spontaneously decided to drive out a day early to see the Colorado Avalanche play the Chicago Blackhawks.  I knew it would be a great game because the Avalanche are definitely in the mix for a Stanley Cup playoff position but I had no idea that it would be one of the best games ever!  I enjoy doing many things by myself but I had never been to a hockey game by myself before.  I used to go to games with my friend Tony and now I usually go with my Dad or my cousins and I wondered how fun it would be with no one to talk to.  I had nothing to fear!  I sat next to two of the rowdiest Avalanche fans in the world and they talked to me the whole night!  In fact, the obnoxious Blackhawks fan sitting behind us thought we were together which was somewhat problematic when they almost got into a fight!  It was so much fun!  With every goal, and there were five of them, we would celebrate by high-fiving and, as the game wore on, hugging each other!  The Avalanche scored a goal on all three power plays, one in each period, and then added two more for good measure in the third period to get the shut-out!  The Pepsi Center was out of control!  I am so glad I decided to go to this game!

Note:  I really missed my Dad!  Not only has he has been my hockey buddy my whole life but he springs for better seats!!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Ready Player One

Last night I had the opportunity to see a Wednesday preview of Ready Player One.  I just finished reading the book by Ernest Cline because so many of the boys in my sophomore English classes were reading it.  Reading is a hard sell to sophomore boys so I wanted to check it out to understand the appeal.  As a child of the 80s, I absolutely loved it and I, along with my students, have been eagerly anticipating the movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg.  If you are a fan of the book there are quite a few changes in the movie, which bothered me initially, but ultimately made for a better narrative.  In the year 2045 much of the population tries to escape from the dreariness of their daily lives by entering a virtual reality simulation known as the OASIS created by an eccentric gamer named James Halliday (Mark Rylance).  When Halliday dies, he reveals a contest to locate three keys leading to an Easter egg granting the winner sole control of both the OASIS and his vast fortune.  A rival software company called Innovative Online Industries (IOI), controlled by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), compels indentured servants to search for the keys because it wants to use the OASIS in order to generate revenue through advertising.  Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a Gunter (egg hunter) who uses the avatar Parzival, eventually teams up with Samantha/Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Helen/Aech (Lena Waithe) to find the egg using clues from Halliday's personal life, such as a fondness for 80s pop culture and his relationships with Ogden (Simon Pegg) and Kira Morrow (Perdita Weeks).  Most of the differences from the book involve the tasks needed to be completed in order find the keys but these scenes are absolutely exhilarating, especially an epic street race and a sequence from The Shining.  The movie is visually stunning, as if you are actually in the middle of a video game.  I loved all of the pop culture references, especially the ones that are very subtle.  When I saw the poster for the Rush album 2112 hanging on the wall in Halliday's teenage bedroom, I may or may not have squealed out loud.  Even though the nostalgia made watching this movie a lot of fun, the message about the dangers of disengaging with reality really resonated with me.  Online you can be anyone or anything that you want but it is always better to be appreciated for who you really are.  I really liked the fact that Art3mis the avatar is incredibly sexy but Wade ultimately wants to be with the mousy Samantha.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend it!

Note:  The only difference from the book that bothered me was that many of the references to music were not used, especially in the club scene.  I really wanted to hear "Union of the Snake."

Sunday, March 25, 2018

The Death of Stalin

One of the things I love best about the Sundance Film Festival is the opportunity to talk to people who are just as passionate about film as I am.  I always ask the people I meet what their favorite film of the festival has been and one of the coolest guys I met immediately mentioned The Death of Stalin, telling me that it was one of the funniest things he had ever seen.  I did wonder how Stalin's Great Purge in the Soviet Union could be viewed as a comedy but he made me promise that I would check it out.  As I was unable to get a ticket at Sundance I have been eagerly anticipating its wide release ever since.  I saw it last night and it is an absolutely hilarious political satire that had me, along with everyone else in my screening, laughing out loud!  After Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) dies from a cerebral hemorrhage, the Members of the Central Committee plot and scheme for control.  The ineffective Gregory Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) assumes control of the Committee but both Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) and Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) manipulate him as they fight each other for control.  The fear of Stalin is satirized as the Moscow Symphony is forced to recreate a performance because Stalin wants a recording (they bring in peasants off the street to recreate the acoustics and the applause because Stalin will know the difference), when the officers outside Stalin's door hear him collapse but are too afraid to enter for fear of provoking his anger, and when the Committee cannot find a doctor to attend to Stalin because all of the good ones have been shot.  Some of the funniest scenes are when the Committee Members try to ingratiate themselves to Stalin's daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) and his unstable son Vasily (Rupert Friend, in a hilarious performance).  There is a montage as they prepare for Stalin's elaborate funeral ("Ruched or non-ruched drapery?") that had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.  Jason Isaacs is completely over-the-top as Field Marshall Georgy Zhukov as he conspires with Khrushchev to stage a coup against Beria.  I had another laughing fit as his medals clanged together in slow-motion.  The ultimate resolution of this farce is quite shocking but, even so, I was laughing again when I saw Leonid Brezhnev looking over Khrushchev's shoulders.  In my opinion, director Armando Iannucci strikes the just the right balance in satirizing what were some darkest days in the history of the Soviet Union by making fun of the stereotype rather than the event itself.  As a fan of dark comedies I highly recommend this film!

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Audra McDonald with the Utah Symphony

Last night was a celebration of musical theatre at Abravanel Hall with the incomparable Audra McDonald and the Utah Symphony.  It was an amazing concert which gave me goosebumps as she belted out showstoppers and brought tears to my eyes as she reminded us that love is the reason for everything.  Let's just say that I won't forget this night any time soon.  I had the privilege of seeing McDonald perform with the Utah Symphony in 2002 as part of the Cultural Olympiad held in conjunction with the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.  It was my first introduction to her and I was so impressed by her beautiful and powerful voice!  I knew that I definitely wanted to see her perform live again and I am so glad that I got a ticket!  Her program featured a variety of selections from musical theatre that spanned decades from Rogers and Hammerstein to Gershwin to many new composers.  My favorites included a sultry rendition of "Moonshine Lullaby" from Annie Get Your Gun, "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, "Simple Little Things" from 110 in the Shade, "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, "Ice Cream" from She Loves Me, "I'll Be Here" from Ordinary Days, and "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady.  She was so personable and charming, telling stories and interacting with the audience all evening.  She mentioned how much she loves Utah because her husband's family lives here and she spoke quite often about her children.  It felt very intimate, like she was performing in a small club rather than in Abravanel Hall.  I was sad to see the concert come to an end because it was so wonderful but McDonald gave the audience a treat by singing an incredibly passionate rendition of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music to finish her set.  After a thunderous standing ovation, she came back to the stage to sing a lovely version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz.  Sometimes I am amazed at all of the opportunities we have to see Broadway stars perform right here in Salt Lake City!  I highly recommend getting a ticket to see one of the best from Broadway perform the same program tonight (go here) if there are any to be had because Abravanel Hall was packed last night!

Thursday, March 22, 2018

The Party

Last night I was in the mood for a dark comedy so, of course, I took myself to the Broadway to see The Party.  Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is an idealistic politician who has just been promoted to Minister of Health.  She and her husband Bill (Timothy Spall) throw a party for their friends to celebrate.  The first to arrive is April (Patricia Clarkson) and her boyfriend Gottfried (Bruno Ganz) followed by Martha (Cherry Jones) and her partner Jinny (Emily Mortimer).  The last to arrive is Tom (Cillian Murphy) who informs them that his wife Marianne will not be able to join them until later.  As they toast Janet's promotion, all of the characters have their own announcements:  Bill has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, April and Gottfried are separating, and Martha and Jinny are expecting triplets.  By the way, Tom, who is clearly agitated and carrying a gun, takes every opportunity to snort cocaine in the bathroom and Janet keeps receiving texts from a lover who is clearly not Bill.  What begins as a celebration among friends rapidly descends into a tense drama filled with long dormant recriminations and culminates in another bombshell announcement.  I laughed through the entire film, as did everyone at my screening.  I don't know what it is about deeply flawed characters behaving badly but I find watching their over-the-top antics to be very cathartic.  All of the actors are fantastic, especially Clarkson (her cynical character has the best lines), and you could say that they give a master class in verbal sparring.  All of the action takes place in a London townhouse in real time so it has the feel of a one-act play (the run-time is only 71 minutes) in which all of the characters come undone right before your eyes and the black and white cinematography highlights the claustrophobia.  I really enjoyed this film but I have to say that I have been in a black mood lately so it might not be for everyone!

Monday, March 19, 2018

Vertigo

I believe I have mentioned once or twice that I absolutely love the films of Alfred Hitchcock so when TCM announced that Vertigo, arguably one of his best films, would be screened for its 60th Anniversary as part of the Big Screen Classics series I got really excited.  I have seen this psychological thriller about obsession many times but never on the big screen so it was a real treat to see it yesterday.  John Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart) is a San Francisco police officer who retires after an episode of vertigo contributes to the death of a fellow officer.  He is asked by Gavin Elster (Tom Elmore), an old friend, to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) because he believes she is acting erratically.  Her actions lead Ferguson to believe that she is possessed by an ancestor and, after he falls in love with her, he tries to protect her from her ancestor's fate of suicide.  Ultimately, he is unable to stop her from jumping from the bell tower of a Spanish mission because of his vertigo.  He is absolved of responsibility for her death but descends into a deep depression until he sees a woman named Judy (Kim Novak) who looks remarkably like Madeleine.  He begins a relationship with her but she may not be who she appears to be.  It is such a brilliant psychological thriller and the scenes where Ferguson tries to make Judy look like Madeleine are so creepy but you just can't look away.  Stewart is fantastic as a man driven mad by his obsession for a woman who doesn't exist. There is a scene, in particular, where Ferguson accuses of Judy of impersonating Madeleine for Elster as part of a murder plot and then realizes that he, too, has asked her to impersonate Madeleine for his own design.  It is incredibly powerful.  Novak is the perfect Hitchcock woman: blond, icy, and mysterious.  The score is haunting and does much to enhance the sense of unease that permeates the film.  Hitchcock's camera work (a technique now know as the dolly zoom which was invented for this movie) is also very disorienting, almost as if the audience is experiencing Ferguson's vertigo along with him.  I think this film is a masterpiece and I recommend seeing it on the big screen (go here for info).

Saturday, March 17, 2018

In the Heights at PTC

Before Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote and starred in another Tony Award winning musical called In the Heights.  I have seen it a couple of times (including a full production at PTC in 2012 and the Broadway touring production) and I really love it, maybe not as much as Hamilton, because it is a very powerful story about love for a community and the family you make with those around you.  Pioneer Theatre Company is currently performing the concert version, a stripped down performance with minimal blocking and choreography (I am a huge fan of this concept and really enjoyed  the concert versions of The Rocky Horror Show and Chess).  My friend Angela and I went to see the performance last night and I was a little bit afraid of her reaction because I have a tendency to really hype the things I love and I worried that I may have overdone it.  Luckily she absolutely loved it and commented that she was really impressed with how well it was staged. The story revolves around a woman named Claudia (Jayne Luke) who acts as an abuela (grandmother) to everyone in a small community in Washington Heights.  Usnavi (Diego Klock-Perez) runs a bodega which is beset with problems, such as a refrigerator that doesn't work, and tries to keep his wayward cousin Sonny (Tomas Joaquin Matos) in line.  He dreams of returning to the cool breezes of the Dominican Republic.  Vanessa (Ariana Escalante) is hoping to escape the barrio, and an abusive mother, to move downtown but a credit check for her new apartment stands in her way.  Nina (Micki Martinez) is the pride of her parents (Enrique Acevedo and Melissa Blatherwick) and the whole neighborhood because she received a scholarship to Stanford.  But college is a lot harder than she thought it would be, especially when you have to work two jobs to make ends meet, and she is thinking of quitting.  Will all of their worries be solved when Abuela Claudia wins the lottery?  In the concert version the music takes center stage and I really enjoyed all of the songs but my favorites were "When You're Home," "Sunrise," "Alabanza," and "When the Sun Goes Down." The actors are fantastic and give incredibly passionate performances.  I was particularly impressed with Martinez’s characterization of Nina because you could really feel her pain at disappointing her community and Klock-Perez looks and sounds so much like Lin-Manuel Miranda that it is uncanny! This production is just wonderful and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to the final performance tonight!

Note:  This is the first time that I have seen In the Heights after seeing Hamilton and I was particularly struck by the similarities.  You can definitely see Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical progression from one to the next.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Tomb Raider

Last night I saw a Thursday preview of Tomb Raider and, honestly, it was so much better than I expected it to be; in fact, I had a lot of fun watching it!  Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) has been missing for seven years until his daughter Lara (Alicia Vikander) finds a message left by him about a cursed queen called Himiko buried on an uninhabited island off the coast of Japan.  A mysterious group known as Trinity wants to locate Himiko's tomb (the reasons why are a bit murky).  Croft begs his daughter to destroy all of his research because opening the tomb will unleash a curse on the world but she uses it to try and locate him.  Despite the fact that this is most definitely an action movie, and a pretty good one at that, it has an emotional core that really resonated with me.  Lara's entire young adulthood has been influenced by her father's absence and she alternates between mourning him and being angry at him for abandoning her.  Some of the dialogue is a bit cheesy but I enjoyed the interactions between Lara and her father as she ultimately forgives him and assumes his role (which sets up a sequel nicely).  I really like Alicia Vikander as an actress and she does a nice job with this role.  Not only does she give an incredibly physical performance in some great action sequences (we see her signature move of dangling by one arm several times) but she also gives the role a lot of pathos.  She shows the fact that she is hurt and exhausted and there is one particular scene where she is devastated after killing someone who is attacking her that is really powerful.  Of course, as I previously mentioned, the action sequences are fantastic.  I especially liked a chase through the houseboats in the harbor in Hong Kong and the tomb scenes reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones movies.  This movie is very entertaining and I recommend it for a fun night out.

Note:  This is not the first time that Dominic West has played Alicia Vikander's father (go here).

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Thoroughbreds

I love a good psychological thriller and Thoroughbreds, which I had the chance to see last night at my favorite art house theater, is a darkly comedic one that I quite enjoyed.  The narrative revolves around two wealthy and privileged girls living in a Connecticut suburb.  Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) is seemingly perfect and impeccably put together while Amanda (Olivia Cooke) is a disheveled sociopath who has been forced to leave school over an incident with a horse (thankfully only hinted at rather than shown).  They were once childhood friends but had grown apart until Amanda's mother hires Lily ostensibly to tutor Amanda but, more importantly, to once again befriend the isolated girl.  Neither girl is who she first appears to be and their early interactions are characterized by rapid-fire dialogue as the girls passively aggressively manipulate each other.  They soon bond over a plan to murder Lily's cruel stepfather, which involves coercing a down-and-out drug dealer (Anton Yelchin).  There is a twist at the end of the film which makes you reevaluate everything you think you know about each girl and I found it to be unbelievably unsettling (in the very best way).  I was fascinated by these two amoral characters and how privilege can completely skew a person's sense of right and wrong.  The script is absolutely brilliant and, while the premise may seem familiar, there are enough completely unexpected moments to make it highly original.  The camera work is masterful making this film both suspenseful and menacing, more for what you don't see rather than what you do, and the sound design does much to enhance the sense of unease (I will never hear a rowing machine in quite the same way again). Both Taylor-Joy and Cooke give fantastic performances and have tremendous chemistry but Yelchin, in my opinion, steals every scene he is in.  This may be my favorite movie of 2018 (so far) and I highly recommend it!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Utah Opera's Pagliacci & Gianni Schicchi

The full breadth of human emotion was on display at Capitol Theatre last night as Utah Opera presented the double bill of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.  The evening began with the tragedy Pagliacci which tells the story of a traveling comedy troupe who arrive at a small town to give a performance, much to the delight of the crowd.  The troupe consists of Canio (Scott Piper) who plays Pagliaccio, his wife Nedda (Marina Costa-Jackson) who plays Colombina, Tonio (Wayne Tigges) who plays Taddeo, and Beppe (Aaron Blake) who plays Arlecchino.  Canio is worried that Nedda might be having an affair but is persuaded to drink at the pub with the townspeople, leaving Nedda alone.  Tonio finds her and professes his love to her but she rebukes him mercilessly.  Nedda is actually having an affair with Silvio (Michael Adams) and, when Tonio sees them together, he tells Canio in order to punish her for her harsh treatment of him.  Canio is devastated but, singing one of the most famous arias, says that he will drown his sorrows with laughter when he plays Pagliacco on stage.  The performance echoes real life as Colombina flirts with Arlecchino while Taddeo stands guard but, when Pagliacco comes home to find the lovers, the action becomes real and he declares that he is no longer Pagliacco.  He dramatically kills both Nedda and Silvio, who is in the audience, and tells the crowd that the performance is over.  Piper gives an incredibly affecting performance, especially when he sings "Vesti la giubba" while getting into his clown costume.  I have to admit that I had a tear in my eye as he stood forlornly in the middle of the stage.  After the tears came the laughter with a rousing performance of Gianni Schicchi.  The scheming extended family of Buoso Donati attend his deathbed, hoping that his will has left them all wealthy.  All of them speak about what they want but Rinuccio (Aaron Blake) hopes that he will have enough money to marry Lauretta (Marina Costa-Jackson), the daughter of a lawyer named Gianni Schicchi (Wayne Tigges), whom the family think unsuitable.  They have heard a rumor that Buoso has left his money to a monastery and, after tearing his room apart looking for the will, are in despair when the rumor is confirmed.   Rinuccio summons Lauretta and her father and, while the family forbids them to marry, they ask Gianni Schicchi to examine the will to find a loophole.  He tells them that they should summon a notary and he will impersonate Buoso and dictate a new will but he warns them of the strict punishment for falsifying documents.  When the notary arrives, Gianni Schicchi gives Buoso's fortune to himself while the family can do nothing.  Rinuccio and Lauretta are now allowed to marry!  This opera has so much physical comedy that I was laughing out loud (so was the entire audience) but it also contains another very famous aria, "O mio babbino caro," which gave me goosebumps.  In my opinion, it was a perfect night of opera: tears, laughter, and some of the most beautiful music in the repertoire.  I highly recommend seeing a performance of Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi, which runs at Capitol Theatre until March 18 (tickets may be purchased here).

Friday, March 9, 2018

A Wrinkle in Time

Last night I saw a Thursday preview of A Wrinkle in Time and, despite the fact that it is visually gorgeous with an important message about simply being yourself, I have to admit that I really did not like it.  Dr. Alex Murry (Chris Pine) has discovered a way to travel great distances through the universe using a tesseract, or a wrinkle in the fabric of time and space, and then he disappears for four years.  His daughter Meg (Storm Reid) is not handling his absence well but her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) introduces her to three strange beings named Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) who take the two of them along with Calvin (Levi Miller), a school friend, on a journey through the universe to find him.  Meg ultimately must battle the evil in the universe with love to free both her father and her brother.  I first read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle when I was eleven years old and I absolutely loved it.  The problem with bringing a beloved work of fantasy to the screen is that it represents the filmmaker's vision and that may differ significantly from a reader's vision.  This is not necessarily the fault of the filmmakers but the images on the screen, while absolutely beautiful, did not in any way resemble what I saw in my mind when I read this book all of those years ago and I really couldn't get past that.  I always pictured the Mrs. Ws as being eccentric old ladies who were more like grandmotherly figures to Meg rather than outlandish beings with garish hair and makeup and gaudy costumes.  Sadly, that is not the only problem I had with this adaptation.  I thought all of the acting was terrible.  Witherspoon and Kaling ham it up at every turn with knowing looks at the camera and Winfrey gives one speech after another about self-empowerment and it gets rather tedious.  I didn't especially like what Zach Galifianakis, as the Happy Medium, and Michael Pena, as the Red Eyed Man, did with their roles and don't even get me started on the overly precocious McCabe.  Although she and Pine have an affecting moment together near the end of the movie, Reid didn't make me care about Meg as a character because she is so passive and just reacts to what other people do.  By the end of the movie I had lost whatever interest I had in the characters (I almost left the theater before the movie was over).  There are so many plot holes that it becomes a confusing mess and the audience is told, rather than shown, what is happening.  The CGI is laughably horrible and it is very obvious that the young actors are reacting to green screens.  It seems as if the only direction they were given was to flail their arms wildly as they run!  It really does pain me to say that I didn't like this movie because representation is so important but sometimes a movie with the best of intentions is still a bad movie.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Every Day

As a high school English teacher I read a lot of YA fiction because I am always on the lookout for good books to recommend to my students who are very reluctant readers.  To be honest, most of it is rubbish but I actually really loved Every Day by David Levithan because I thought it was incredibly clever and thought-provoking.  When I learned that a movie adaptation was in the works, I really hoped that it would be good.  I had the chance to see it yesterday and I liked it. A is a mysterious spirit who wakes up in a different body every day.  It is always someone the same age, although it can be someone of a different gender, race, and sexual orientation, who lives in the same geographical location.  A tries to integrate into the person's life and do as little damage as possible but everything changes when A inhabits Justin (Justice Smith).  While in Justin's body, A meets Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) and feels an immediate connection to her.  Rhiannon also feels a connection to Justin that had never been there before as they spend a magical day at the beach together.  When A wakes up in another body (a girl named Amy) the next day, she seeks Rhiannon out and eventually tries to explain.  A continues seeking Rhiannon out even though there are consequences for those he inhabits (the story of Nathan believing he is possessed by the devil is less developed in the movie than the book).  As Rhiannon falls in love with A, she eventually realizes the difficulties with such a relationship.  In order to appreciate this movie you have to be willing to accept the concept (and ignore a few inconsistencies, such as how they are able to communicate using cell phones that belong to other people).  The reason why A inhabits different bodies every day is never explained but, in my opinion, that it not what this movie is all about.  Rather, it is about loving someone for who they are rather than their appearance and loving someone enough to let them go.  Rice gives an endearing performance and it is really easy to root for her.  I also liked how each of the different actors playing A give the character similar mannerisms.  This is definitely a movie that will appeal to the demographic for which it was meant (my screening was full of teenage girls) but I enjoyed it and recommend it for its sweet romance and powerful message.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Red Sparrow

I am a huge fan of espionage so I was really intrigued by Red Sparrow and went to see it yesterday.  Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow when she suffers a career ending injury at the hands of a fellow dancer.  Worried that she will no longer be able to support her ailing mother (Joely Richardson) she is coerced by her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts), an agent in Russian intelligence, to become a Sparrow, an agent trained to seduce her target to gain information.  After grueling training under the tutelage of the Matron (Charlotte Rampling) at State School 4, or “Sparrow School,” she is sent to Budapest to meet up with Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), a CIA agent, to learn the identity of the double agent he is running in Moscow.  I judge all spy movies on whether or not they can keep me guessing and this is an intense and suspenseful thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat trying to unravel who was double-crossing whom.  There is not a lot of action, like you would normally see in a typical spy thriller, but the character-driven intrigue is what creates the tension.  I think Jennifer Lawrence gives a good performance and I wasn't at all bothered by her much-maligned accent.  There are some pretty graphic sex and torture scenes but, in my opinion, they are appropriate within the context of the story and not at all gratuitous.  One particularly disturbing scene where an attempted rape is recreated at the Sparrow school is used to help Dominika learn to detach herself from her body.  It is exploitative but that is the entire point of the movie.  She has been forced into this situation by men with power over her and that is what makes the final resolution so incredibly satisfying!  These scenes might bother some some sensitive viewers but I actually thought they were a lot tamer than what I was led led to believe.  I liked this movie quite a bit and I would recommend it to fans of the genre.

Note: I thought the nudity and sex in Atomic Blonde was much more gratuitous.

Friday, March 2, 2018

The Sound of Music at the Eccles

Last night I had the opportunity to see the Broadway touring company production of The Sound of Music now currently playing at the Eccles Theater.  This story about a high spirited nun who is sent to be the governess to Captain Von Trapp's seven children has long been one of my very favorite musicals but I am more familiar with the 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer than I am with the stage version.  The production that I saw last night is based on the original book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse which is quite different from the movie and I found it to be a bit jarring.  I was happily anticipating all of my favorite scenes and songs and I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed when I was surprised by something else.  Some of the songs from the movie are omitted, such as "Confidence" which is such a fun number.  Some songs that are not in the movie are included, such as "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It" which are both sung by Baroness Schraeder (Melissa McKamie) and Max Detweiler (Jake Mills).  I didn't particularly care for either song because I don't really care about either of these characters.  I wanted more time with Maria (Sarah Brackett) and the Captain (Mike McLean) because their romance seems very rushed in this version.  Quite a few of the songs are performed in a different scene than they are in the movie.  For example, "My Favorite Things" is sung between Maria and the Mother Abbess (Lauren Kidwell), "Do-Re-Mi" is sung when Maria first meets the children, "The Lonely Goatherd" is sung when the children are scared of the thunderstorm, and "Eidelweiss" is not sung until the music festival near the end of the show.  After a while I decided to stop comparing it to the movie and simply enjoy the performances, which are fantastic!  Brackett, who is the understudy, is delightful as Maria.  All of the Von Trapp children are adorable, especially Sophia Massa as little Gretl, and they have beautiful voices which harmonize very well.  Kidwell just about blows the roof off the Eccles Theater with her rendition of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," definitely a highlight of the show.  I would absolutely recommend this show because it is such a classic that everyone in the family will enjoy but if the movie is your touchstone, like it is for me, just be prepared for some differences.  It runs at the Eccles Theater until March 4.

Note:  Broadway at the Eccles announced the shows coming to SLC next season and I could not be more excited!  The lineup includes Waitress, Come From Away, Finding Neverland, Aladdin, School of Rock, and RENT!  The season add-ons are Wicked and The Book of Mormon.  My sister Kristine has never see Wicked before so my Mom, Marilyn, and I are going to take her for a fun girls night!  Broadway at the Eccles also teased us with the announcement that Dear Evan Hansen will be coming the following year!  Squeal!  Go here for more information.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

i at PTC

Last night I went to the world premiere of an incredibly thought-provoking play by Jeff Talbott called i.  I didn't know anything about it because there were no director's notes provided in the program and the setting was listed as a city sometime soon.  Now that I have seen it I think it is much better to go in blind and let the events (and the plot twist) surprise you.  It begins with a clearly distraught young woman named Sarah Cooper (Kathleen McElfresh) as she is interviewed by a doctor before undergoing a mysterious medical procedure.  The next time we see her she seems to be a completely different woman who has relocated to another city.  Then she meets Jake Bellamy (Todd Gearhart) and her new life begins to unravel.  This play is a profound meditation on identity and my mind was swirling with so many ideas as I left the theater!  What role do our memories play in who we are?  Is it better to feel nothing at all rather than feel sad?  Just because something is possible does that mean it should be done?   This play requires quite a bit of engagement as it is comprised mostly of intimate conversations between the two main characters (several people sitting near me were clearly restless) but I really enjoyed it.  The minimal set, composed of moving plexiglass panels, and the lighting cues are very effective at conveying the isolation felt by the main characters.  Both McElfresh and Gearhart give highly nuanced performances that I found to be incredibly affecting and I was very impressed by the sheer number of characters portrayed by Nefeesa Monroe.  I applaud Pioneer Theatre for its willingness to produce new works like this and I highly recommend this production.  It runs through March 3 and tickets may be purchased here.
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